Before even that, I'd rather see salaries posted. Only a disappointingly small number of companies post salary information.
That’s something that also depends on your profile and how you can negociate.
Ask HN: Can the “Who is Hiring?” post include a bit about the interview process?
31–40 of 116 posts
Re: Ask HN: Can the “Who is Hiring?” post include a bit about the interview process?
#32I wish companies didn't think their interviews were some weird "secret sauce" -- I've had companies flat out refuse to tell me what the interview process would be like, or even how long I should expect for the interview beyond "1-4 hours". Well, you know 1 hour is a lot different than 4 hours! Personally I think all companies should be using pair-programming or contract to hire, as I think trivia questions and whiteb…
That could be because they are inexperienced, and are making up their interview process as they go along? This is definitely quite common IME.
Re: Ask HN: Can the “Who is Hiring?” post include a bit about the interview process?
#33This is a great idea. I've been in many interviews where I thought I did pretty well only to be told, "oh, this is just the first of many interviews". I wouldn't have applied if I had known since every onsite interview requires me to at least take half a day off from work. That is time that can be used for something else. But I do have to mention that with the Big4, they will let you know in detail about the whole pr…
Who constitutes the big 4? Facebook, Google, ...?
There is not a 'big 4' in tech.
Re: Ask HN: Can the “Who is Hiring?” post include a bit about the interview process?
#34I wish companies didn't think their interviews were some weird "secret sauce" -- I've had companies flat out refuse to tell me what the interview process would be like, or even how long I should expect for the interview beyond "1-4 hours". Well, you know 1 hour is a lot different than 4 hours! Personally I think all companies should be using pair-programming or contract to hire, as I think trivia questions and whiteb…
1-4 hours makes sense. If you're terrible the interview finishes in an hour, 4 hours if there seriously considering you.
Re: Ask HN: Can the “Who is Hiring?” post include a bit about the interview process?
#35I would love if someone can mention these things too:
1. For remote jobs, the timezones that they are comfortable with.
2. If they can sponsor overseas candidates.
This would make it easier for the candidates
Re: Ask HN: Can the “Who is Hiring?” post include a bit about the interview process?
#36I wish companies didn't think their interviews were some weird "secret sauce" -- I've had companies flat out refuse to tell me what the interview process would be like, or even how long I should expect for the interview beyond "1-4 hours". Well, you know 1 hour is a lot different than 4 hours! Personally I think all companies should be using pair-programming or contract to hire, as I think trivia questions and whiteb…
I think a part of the secrecy is so that if it goes poorly they can stop the interview after a really bad session without indicating to the candidate that it's gone so badly. "Yup, it's always just two sessions, goodbye." This is an actual rational I've heard. I don't agree with it, but it's a thing.
For anyone who finds this to be a plausible reason, I did too. Then I realized that a more transparent company would simply tell me that I they're cutting the interview short.
Re: Ask HN: Can the “Who is Hiring?” post include a bit about the interview process?
#37I wish companies didn't think their interviews were some weird "secret sauce" -- I've had companies flat out refuse to tell me what the interview process would be like, or even how long I should expect for the interview beyond "1-4 hours". Well, you know 1 hour is a lot different than 4 hours! Personally I think all companies should be using pair-programming or contract to hire, as I think trivia questions and whiteb…
"Trivia questions" are not useless. I've put out job ads only to receive hundreds of applications from all over the world, many not even in English or without even a word accompanying a CV. Of the "proper" applicants, I've then had to deal with dozens of candidates that claimed a competence they did not have. And guess what - that's a lot of effort and time which is taken away from the business. In my case, that's a big opportunity cost with salaries burning a deeper hole for every minute that they are not offset by client time. I suspect it's much worse for famous organisations.
So now I ask a dozen questions by email that should take 5 minutes to answer in order to filter out both these groups, and that cover many basic CS concepts. Works really well, even if it's a bit annoying for candidates and probably turns off many vs just uploading your CV for HR to auto-scan for keywords.
For example, if I'm hiring someone to do data modelling work and they tell me it's called the relational model because of the relations between tables, it's unlikely they'll know how to unfold EAV antipatterns. And if you have actual machine learning experience, it's unlikely you'll be stumped by my asking what high leverage means.
Re: Ask HN: Can the “Who is Hiring?” post include a bit about the interview process?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, I think is the current list.
Apple not big enough?
I've heard from various friends at Apple that their interviews are way less structured than Google or Facebook or Microsoft's. For similar software positions, one friend was seriously grilled on implementation details of WebKit internals, while the other said he just shot some high level shit about music production software for a coupe of hours. Similar resumes, similar backgrounds, both got gigs but I was kind of surprised at how different their experiences were.
Re: Ask HN: Can the “Who is Hiring?” post include a bit about the interview process?
#39It's a good idea but I'm a bit worried about making those threads even more top-heavy than they already are by asking people to include even more info in their posts. It might also be hard to explain what we're asking submitters to do in a way that makes sense to everyone, especially the ones who don't post on HN except in those threads. We'll think about it. There's a couple days before the next thread. Edit: ok, I…
I think a reasonable compromise would be to request job posters to link to their /.well-known/hiring.txt [1] at the bottom of their posting.
[1] As suggested here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11600376
Re: Ask HN: Can the “Who is Hiring?” post include a bit about the interview process?
#40I wish companies didn't think their interviews were some weird "secret sauce" -- I've had companies flat out refuse to tell me what the interview process would be like, or even how long I should expect for the interview beyond "1-4 hours". Well, you know 1 hour is a lot different than 4 hours! Personally I think all companies should be using pair-programming or contract to hire, as I think trivia questions and whiteb…
A long time ago I was interviewing with Facebook. They told me exactly what to expect from the process. I was actually shocked that they were giving away so much information. I studied for the interview and did very well in the first half, and then horribly the second half. Overall I enjoyed it because of how honest they were.